Market development work in Saskatoon for high-energy briquettes made from oat hulls and other ag and forestry biomass will get provincial funding.
The Saskatchewan government said Thursday it will provide “Go Green” funding of $160,250 for Saskatoon’s Titan Clean Energy Projects Corp. to help bring its biomass briquetting technology to market.
Titan said its process will turn waste agricultural and forestry biomass into a “carbon-neutral heat and energy source” meant for use by “traditional coal consumers.”
Burning biomass briquettes would also reduce emissions of methane that would normally occur through decomposition, the province said, and the product may also be used in woodstoves as a “high-energy, eco-friendly alternative to firewood.”
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Use of Titan’s technology has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 35,000 tonnes per year, which is about the same reduction as from taking 8,000 cars off the road for a year, the province said.
Titan CEO Jamie Bakos said the technology, when commercialized, “will give high energy-consuming operations a cleaner option as they reduce their carbon footprint.”
Titan’s funding will flow through the provincial environment department’s Green Technology Commercialization Grant program, part of the “Go Green” fund that the province said it “more than doubled” in this spring’s budget to $17.5 million.
